Arcane Lore: Firemouth and Fire Eye

With an appearance of warm weather, I bring you a fire themed spell and a magic item that will help keep things toasty. These originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #123 in Arcane Lore by Harold Dolan.

Fire Mouth

3rd level evocation (ritual)

Casting Time: 1 minute

Range: 30 feet

Components: V, S, M (a drop of oil, a pinch of sulfur, and one tooth or scale from a red dragon)

Duration:Until dispelled

When this spell is cast, an object is empowered with an enchanted mouth which suddenly appears and breathes fire when a specific condition is met. When triggered, a thin sheet of flames shoots forth. Each creature in a 15-foot cone must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 6d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

The fire ignites any flammable objects in the area that aren’t being worn or carried.

If the object you chose has a mouth or something that looks like a mouth (for example: the mouth of a statue) the magical mouth appears there so that the words appear to come from the object’s mouth.

When you cast this spell, you can have the spell end after it shoots flame or it can remain and repeat its damage whenever the trigger occurs.

The triggering circumstance can be as general or as detailed as you like, though it must be based on visual or audible conditions that occur within 30 ft of the object. For example, you could instruct the mouth to shoot when any creature moves within 30 feet of the object or when a silver bell rings within 30 feet.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 4th.

Fire Eye

Legendary wondrous item, requires attunement

Avissar Fire Eye derived his name from a powerful and unique magical item of his own devising. The Fire Eye is a monocle fabricated by the Archmage and endowed with unique powers.

Its lens is smooth and transparent, and measures 1 inch in diameter; it is reputed to be a gemstone of unearthly origin, dug from the crater of a meteorite. This lens is enclosed in a circle of mithral and the whole is hung on a mithral chain of the finest craftsmanship. The gem and chain alone are worth 7,500 gp if sold

Mere possession of the monocle confers resistance to fire damage.

When the monocle is worn over the right eye, the wearer gains truesight.

The next three powers can be used only when the monocle is worn over the left eye. You can use an action to expend some of the monocle’s 5 charges to cast one of the following spells without using any components, using your spell save DC:

burning hands (1 charge)

fireball (3 charges)

wall of fire (4 charges)

For each additional charge you expend, you can cast the spells at a higher level slot.

The monocle regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges each day at dawn. However, if you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the monocle blackens, crumbles into cinders, and is destroyed.

If the Fire-Eye is held by the end of its chain and slowly rocked back and forth, it hums softly and glows. If it is then held before the eyes of any single creature, that creature is the target of a suggestion spell. This power can be used once per short or long rest.

When it is clutched and a command word uttered, the monocle can teleport its possessor once per week.

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One Reply to “Arcane Lore: Firemouth and Fire Eye”

I loved this article back in the day. This was the “Arcane Lore” series, which was supposed to replace/expand “Pages from the Mages”, which was more Ed Greenwood’s Forgotten Realms thing. I ended up converting the spells and item to Fantasy Hero (my system of choice in college), and eagerly looked forward to the next article. Sadly, while some of them were great, most of them did not have nearly as many gamable bits. By contrast, the College of Fire Magics was a great scenario seed, in addition to creating a cook background element, spells, and item.